Welcome to Medullary Ray

Reclaimed Home Office Desk  Sometimes it's a phone call, sometimes I'm just driving down the road and come upon a stack of beams put out on Friday from a construction crew, sometimes I have to go hunting but inevitably I come across timber that has served it's purpose and is slated for the landfill. Most of the time I look at the wood and can see right away another use for it.  Laying out the wood for a project is a huge element in the success of the piece. Noticing the grain direction, colors, knots, splits or figure all have to do with the overall design of the piece. I rearrange until my body feels that right feeling. It's a sense. All is right. That's when I proceed to the first step.    Just because the wood is reclaimed doesn't mean it comes looking like the finished product. It all started for me when I was invited to come get some wood from an old metal mill. Friends of friends were turning this old building into a physical therapy center and they had fl...

What is successful Design in furniture? Successful design is functional and visually pleasing. The challenge is to arrive at a design that meets both of these qualities equally. I believe woodworking is very much like the martial arts.  It is discipline and focus and being in tune with your senses, your feelings and the material that you are working with. Sometimes we just know we should wait to make that cut or start that glue-up and other times we know that everything is in alignment and there is no time to waste. It is a very personal process. Design is much the same. We struggle with the radius of an arc, the heaviness of a line, the proportions of a cabinet all related to the wood we are using and perhaps the final placement of the piece. Design is exciting! It can be a lot of fun to design your next desk or chair or armoire. Even more exciting to choose the wood. What woodworker doesn't like to go look at your local hardwood supplier and see what they mi...